Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.30/ Trend F.Karimov/
Iran is currently facing the shortage of 212 drugs, the Tasnim News Agency quoted Iran's Red Crescent Society's medical organization Zaher Rostami as saying.
According to the health ministry of Iran, the country is facing 212 items of medicine, he added.
Iranian people pay 80 percent of medical costs out of their own pocket, the Mehr News Agency quoted Tehran medical council member Iraj Khosronia as saying on Tuesday.
The figure is projected to be 25-30 percent by 2015, he added. Unfortunately, low-quality pharmaceutical raw materials are being imported from China and India, he noted.
The administration of president-elect Mr. Rohani should pay special attention to the issue of medical treatment costs, he stressed.
In April, the Mehr News Agency reported that some 10 percent of Iranian people are unable to pay medical treatment costs for hard-to-cure diseases and such costs have left them destitute.
Due to western-led sanctions, only a handful of international banks are willing to transfer currencies on behalf of Iran to purchase medicine, which is leading to a shortage of imported drugs, Rasoul Khazari, a member of the Iranian parliament's health committee, said in November.
On January, IRNA quoted Iranian deputy health minister, Mostafa Qanei, as saying that about 90 percent of needed medicine can be produced domestically.
On November 2012, the health ministry of Iran called the Central Bank to earmark $2 billion for importing medicine to cope with the domestic shortage as a result of international sanctions.